Avatar Risograph Poster Design – Group Project

introduction
In this Project, we are assigned in 4 groups, and each group needs to choose a style and theme to create a poster for their events. Within each group, each group member needs to design a poster using a different technique and would finish each other’s poster design, layout, and printing part. Our group chooses to use the Art Deco style to create a series poster for Chelsea’s dog parade for 2019, and the technique I choose is the digital collage.

After studying the definition of Art Deco style, I decided to find a balance between cuteness of dog and designs that expressed the speed, power, and scale of modern technology which exactly are the characteristics of the Art Deco style. As a result, I decided not to do the machine age aesthetic, replacing flowing, floral motifs with streamlined, geometric on the dog, instead, I decided to use cute images of puppies and animations of puppies as my focus point so that the cuteness of puppies can be emphasized. And for the background, since geometric shapes and intense color schemes are prominent in the Deco style, I choose to use verticle columns, high contrasting color, and dots as my pattern to imply the Deco style. After doing some different versions of my idea, I ended up with my final one. And for the font, we downloaded a font online which fit the Deco style perfectly.

Salient points to document phase II

We made a list of our considered fonts which are Charcuterie Block, Charcuterie Deco, Charcuterie Filigree, Fairwater Deco Serif, Fairwater, Sailor Serif, Copal Std. They all fit the concept of Art Deco from the simplest and clearest font, to the most complicated font. Within the group, we made the agreement that we can choose different fonts for our posters as long as fonts share similarity and consistency. The font I chose is the Charcuterie Deco. At first, I wanted to go with the Copal Std since my poster design is clean and simple, so I thought a complicated, well design font could flavor it up a bit. However, after compared and contrasted, I found out that the Charcuterie Deco not only have the feature of Deco but also carries more sense of Halloween which I believe is the perfect choice of a poster for Dog parade during Halloween!

show and explain what other unifying poster design elements you choose as a group

The unifying element we choose is the dog because we are doing design for dogs!!! Besides that, we all using dots and circles throughout our design to show our consistency. Besides that, the geometrical shapes are also our common element since our style is the Deco style.

Salient points to document phase III

reading the file for digital printing – briefly explain this process and include one screen grab

For this step, I did the exact steps you taught us on class. I first changed the image to CYMK mode, and then I separated them to 4 layers-Cyan, Pink, Yellow, and Black. Finally, I saved each one of them separately as Jpge so that they can be sent by email and would be ready to print. However, the process of the risograph printing was really a pain in the ass. I went there at 3 pm, and the color adjustment, opacity, paper jam altogether resulted that it took me almost 4 hours to get the final print out.

Salient points to document phase IV

reflection: looking back on past projects and the reflection questions I asked you, come up with 3 of your own reflection questions

1. Do you think the balance between cuteness and Deco style is successful?

I can’t sure whether is successful or not. But the thing I can make sure is that I love the way it looks and the feeling it presents.

2. If balancing the style is a challenge, why choose the Deco style in the first place?

If this is a personal project, I would have chosen other style cause to be honest, Art Deco is my least favourite style out of three. Compare to pattern, loose lines are more fit my taste. However, this is a group project, and all of my group mates agreed using Art Deco style. Therefore, even though I personally think is hard to balance cuteness and the style. But as a group member, the only thing I can do is to try my best.

3. Do you think the font is the best choice after seeing the final risograph print?

I think is great! It really gives me the feeling of the holiday. And I’m glad I chose a simple font. Cause after printing it out, the colour of the poster is really high contrasted, and if I’ve chosen a complicated one, the whole poster will look messy and will lost the focus point.